I must be a glutton for self-punishment.  Honestly.  Not only is it the holidays, but I have also committed myself to an art show that is being displayed at the school that I work at in January and also, I have just signed on to participate in The Sketchbook Project being put on by the Art House Co-Op which is due in February.  I’m so excited about all of it, but now that I’m sitting back and thinking of everything that needs done, I’ve concluded that I’m slightly insane for not considering this all before hand.  Oh well.

I finally got my Christmas decorations up, after a lot of whining and complaining.  I was tempted to just leave them in the attic this year.  Had it not been for the kids, the decorations would have stayed up there.  However, I can’t deprive those sweet stepkids of mine of Christmas cheer.  So here are a few snapshots that Tommie Rae and I took the other night of our favorite ornaments and decorations.

This past summer on a trip to Bethany Beach I purchased some beautiful little shells for my bathroom.  They’ve been sitting in my studio, wrapped in tissue paper since August.  I have been looking for shadow boxes that were about 1.5 - 2 inches deep and 6″x6″ on the outside.  So specific.  I had no luck until this past weekend when I found them at Ikea. 

Supplies:  Shadow Box, Craft Knife, Hot Glue Gun, Scrapbook Paper and Bristol. (so simple!)

I found some pretty scrapbooking paper, mounted it onto a piece of bristol and hot-glued the shells onto the mounted paper.  That’s it!  Now I have ultra-adorable wall decor for above my bathroom vanity.

P.S. I love Ikea.

This is a project that has been intended for months now, but I just recently finished.  When I say recent, I mean within the past couple weeks.  It’s still sitting on the floor, waiting to be hung up, but it’s finished nonetheless. 

I really just bought him for his gorgeous frame.

I removed D’Artagnan.  This was no easy task.  He was held in place by at least 50 nails that were about 2 inches apart all the way around the back of the frame.  Once I removed him and the nails, I painted the frame white. 

Next, I attached a sheet of cork board to a piece of foam board, covered it with burlap, decorated it with some awesome Martha Stewart Ribbon, and nailed the entire piece to the back of the frame. 

I’m SO happy with the outcome.  I love mostly the frame that I paid an amazing $6 for and the pocket I improvised on the front of the inspiration board.  I can’t wait to hang it up!!

For those of you who haven’t familiarized themselves with Martha Stewart’s new craft line, I’m sorry. You really are missing out. I’ve made a few trips to Michael’s and each time I come back with handfulls of things I don’t necessarily need, but I most desparately want. So, I put myself to work and figured out a few little, but useful crafts. The first one, I saw on someone’s blog and for the life of me I can’t remember where. If it’s yours, I’m so sorry! Message me and I will definitely credit you! In the meantime, thank you for the great idea!

I took these:

And turned them into these:

I used the Martha Stewart Craft Glue, Decorative Ribbon Tape and some scrapbooking paper. So easy! Now I have something adorable, inexpensive, and practical to use in my studio for paint brushes (dry of course), pens, scissors.. whatever I want!

Next I took this:

And turned it into this:

It’s a little mirror from Ikea that I fancied up using Martha Stewart’s Decoupage Glue and scrapbooking paper. I wanted something more than the plain stained frame for the bedroom. Below are close ups of the detail in the paper. The red and white are embossed with designs.

It turned out pretty cute. I have 2 more frames to spruce up before finding a place for them in my light blueish green and red bedroom.

Let me just tell you what a wonderful guy I have in my life. Anytime I’m having a bad day (which is quite often due to the fact that I work in an office 40 hrs a week and almost die on a daily basis from creative stagnation), he says to me “Why don’t you go buy some new ribbon? It’ll cheer you up.” He’s so sweet and supportive. And he knows me so well. **happy girl**

For color week, today is orange and yellow. These 2 colors depict so many happy things in the world.. sunshine, flowers, smiley faces.. Well here are the yellow and orange things that make me happy.

My favorite yellow bag that Tom bought me +
an awesome yard sale find of a chair for $3 +
my yellow living room=
Happy Girl

A painting of mine that is technically unfinished
hanging right outside the bathroom door

Some pretty flowers in mom’s backyard

Books from childhood I found in an old box Mom gave me

An amazing orange velvet chair that Tom’s grandpa gave us.
He gave us TWO!

My absolute favorite vases of KOI fish from Z Gallerie

Beautiful bird that couldn’t stop looking at me at the Aviary..

Gorgeous little Tommie Rae
I added this because we were carving pumpkins and it’s all over her cute little hands

A Lily up on Mt. Washington after a rain..
Yeah, I actually took this picture myself.
It surprised even me.

I took this one too at Phipps Conservatory.
Yes, I took this one, too! haha

Another one from Phipps..

And another…

Last but not least, my adorable, oh-so-lovable kitty, Willie
(in his Christmas hat)

That concludes yellow day and orange day. I actually have another post coming up of my craftiness the past couple of night. I’m gonna have to do it in a separate post, though. This one is just getting too long. If you can’t tell, I absolutely love taking pictures. And I love taking pictures of flowers.. obviously! I hope you all enjoy them. Leave lots of comments! I love to hear from you!

Yesterday Tom accompanied me to Ikea for a leisurely stroll through one of my favorite stores on the planet.  We spotted this awesome fabric on sale for $3.99 a yard..

Being that I have an unhealthy obsession for any and all birds, I quickly snatched up 5 yards of this.  First order of business, make a shower curtain. 

Also, I’ve been thinking lately and decided it’s time I post more of my art.  I realized all I’ve posted is my cooking and photography.  So to start this new trend off.. here is a recent painting of mine that now graces the wall in our dining room. 

The lighting is AWFUL in this pictures, but it will have to suffice.  I’m going to take more pictures of the paintings I have all over the house and try to get one of this tree with better lighting.  This week I will also post some of my drawings.  Eventually, I’ll get some onto Etsy once I get prints made.